


42

by sneetchstar



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, First Kiss, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 15:51:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13251519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sneetchstar/pseuds/sneetchstar
Summary: Cassandra gets stuck in her head trying to solve a massive puzzle and only Jacob Stone can bring her out of it.  Maybe.





	42

**Author's Note:**

> Dipping a toe into this fandom...

It was the most complex puzzle they had ever seen.

Crosswords, sudoku, rebuses, search-a-words, scrambles, even those annoying puzzles with the sliding squares that make a picture. And more. And a row of buttons with symbols beside it.

The Librarians and their guardian stared at the monster puzzle, which had to be solved to escape from the temple and take Pythagoras’ magic arrow to the Library for safekeeping.

“Cassandra, this is all you.” Ezekiel is the first to break the stunned silence, nudging the young woman at his right.

“I… I haven’t done this many puzzles at once… ever,” she replies, suddenly unsure of herself. “And since the surgery, I’m not…”

“Cass, you can do it. We have faith in you,” Jacob assures her. She looks at the others and sees them all nodding their encouragement.

“We’ll be right here,” Baird says, reaching out to briefly squeeze her hand.

“Okay,” Cassandra says, stepping forward. “Okay,” she softly repeats to herself.

She stares at the super-puzzle, at the interwoven and overlapping structure of them, takes a deep breath, and begins to focus. She spreads her hands out before her to bring up the floating workspace only she can see, and gets to work.

The other three watch, nervous, knowing their window of time is short, hoping they aren’t pushing their friend and colleague too much.

“Come on Cass,” Ezekiel whispers, getting antsy, looking at his watch.

“Shh,” Baird hushes him. “She can do this.”

Jake intently watches her, unconsciously and automatically looking for any sign that she is in trouble or is taking on too much. He can hear her soft mutterings as she sorts it all out.

“2-5-6-7-0-8-3-9-4-1… crustaceans… if ax 2 \+ bx + c = 0 then x = ( -b (b 2 \- 4ac) ) / 2a… hyacinth…”

The longer she mutters, the more worried Jake gets. Not because they are running out of time, but because it looks like she is going further and further down the rabbit hole.

“Stone,” Baird says, nudging him. “I think she’s—”

“Overloaded,” he finishes. Jones softly curses from Eve’s other side.

“Go,” Baird nudges Stone, and he looks at her, eyes wide. “You are the only one who is able to bring her back when she’s like this. You need to bring her out of it!”

“I haven’t… I mean, like she said, it’s been a while…” he stammers, suddenly unsure, just as Cassandra was in the beginning.

Baird punches him in the shoulder. “Go! We can’t lose her!” she orders.

Jacob immediately walks over to Cassandra, his legs moving before his brain can even tell them to. “Cassandra,” he starts, talking softly. “Cassie,” he tries again, moving between her and the puzzle, trying to impose himself between them. He places his hands on her shoulders and stares into her wide blue eyes, hard. They are unfocused, not seeing him at all.

He looks over her shoulder at Baird and Jones, feeling helpless. Baird mouths, “Go!” at him once more, and he refocuses.

“Cassandra,” he starts, looking into her vacant eyes once more. “Come on, honey, I need you to focus on me. Get out of the puzzle… follow my voice.” He blinks, thinking. “Puzzles… find a memory for doing puzzles. Something concrete to be an anchor.”

She keeps babbling, and he knows it’s not working. Her fingers and hands are flying; she has nearly hit him in the face several times now.

“312… Saturn… f(x,y) / d(Xi sub a) = f1(x,y) cos(a) + f2(x,y) sin(a)…”

“Oh man, she’s doing calculus now,” Jacob whispers, briefly looking up in surrender.

“Stone!” Baird yells, then pointedly taps her watch. “Her… her circuits are overloaded! You have to bypass them! You need something more powerful than a memory anchor to bring her around!”

Without thinking, Jake’s hands move from Cassandra’s shoulders to her face, gently cradling it just before his lips press against hers.

She stills almost immediately. Jacob pulls away a second later.

He thinks she _may_ have just begun kissing him back, but now is not the time to ponder such things.

When Cassandra opens her eyes, they are clear, focused, gazing at him. “Jacob…” she exhales, her voice little more than a soft coo. She blinks. “42,” she says, then reaches over and presses a button engraved with a symbol that looks very much like an asterisk.

Then she faints, collapsing against him just as the door slides open.

Jacob immediately scoops her into his arms and follows the others out, heading straight for the doorway.

xXx

When Cassandra opens her eyes some time later, the first thing she sees is the concerned face of Jacob Stone staring down at her.

“Hey,” he greets, giving her a shy half-smile.

She slowly sits up. “What happened?” she asks. She looks around and sees she is reclined on an upholstered bench in her favorite secluded corner of the library.

Jake gives her a quick explanation, ending with, “And you were… kind of overloaded, I guess. I couldn’t—”

“You kissed me,” she interrupts, her eyes widening and her fingertips going to her lips as she remembers the warm feel of his surprisingly soft lips against hers.

“I’m sor—”

“Thank y—”

They both speak at once, then stop abruptly. Cassandra giggles awkwardly while Jacob nervously runs his hand through his hair.

“Go ahead. Please,” she whispers. She heard him start to apologize and is curious as to why he thinks he needs to do so.

He blushes slightly, looking down. Hours later, he can still taste her strawberry-flavored lip gloss combined with the taste of her underneath, brief though the kiss was. "I’m sorry about, um, not asking permission first. It was the only thing I could think of that might have been distracting enough to pull you back."

“Thank you,” she replies, surprising him. “It’s all right. I understand why you did it.” She bites her lower lip and looks down at her hands in her lap.

“Yeah, well, I’m still sorry. Consent is important. I would normally never do anything like that without asking first,” he apologizes again, also looking down. He looks up again when her small hand comes to rest over his, which are folded tightly together.

“I know,” she responds. “I know you are a gentleman.”

“I try to be,” he softly replies. “If I—” He stops abruptly, reminding himself to keep his cards close to his vest. _You don’t want to make an even bigger fool of yourself, Stone._

“Jacob,” she says, then waits until he looks up at her again. “Ask me now.” When he pauses, stunned, she starts to backtrack. “Oh. You didn’t want—” She pulls her hand away. “Okay, I’m just going to go and die of embarrassment now.” She starts to get up, but his warm hand closes around hers, stopping her.

“Cassandra, may I kiss you?” he asks.

His voice so quiet it is nearly a whisper. It feels soft like rabbit fur and smells like dark chocolate. She closes her eyes. “Once more,” she breathes.

“May I kiss you?” he repeats, and she can feel he is closer.

A slow smile crosses her lips. “Your voice is my favorite color,” she says, slowly opening her eyes in time to see his lips quirk up in a tiny smile.

Then _she_ leans forward and kisses _him._

It is soft and sweet and when they finally part, she simply says, “Cinnamon rolls.” He can only laugh in delight, wrapping his arms around her.

When they pull away from each other again, he looks at her and asks, “42?”

She tilts her head and says, “Don’t tell me you’ve never read Douglas Adams.”


End file.
